The 80-acre farm is located in Speer, about 20 miles north of Peoria on Illinois Route 40. Apples are king. You can buy a basket of them or climb one of the 11,000 trees on the grounds and gather your own.

Free apple cider greets you when you enter the Tanner’s building but then something else hits you: the scent of apple cider doughnuts baked on the premises. Regardless of what you may have heard about fats and nutrition, consumption of these doughnuts is mandatory.

Two years ago, Tanner’s had to install another doughnut machine to keep up with weekend demand, said Jennifer Beaver, a manager at the orchard.

As urban America moves further from our agrarian roots — even in the middle of the Corn Belt — Tanner’s has come to provide that weekend return to the farm and all the romantic notions that go with it. They’ve also helped restore one’s faith in doughnuts. Last year, Tanner’s sold 44,000 dozen of these apple cider rings. That’s over half-a-million doughnuts — and the place is only open a few months out of the year. Beyond local sales, shipments go not just across the country but all over the world.

Owned and operated by the Tanner family since 1947, Tanner’s Orchard is home to all kinds of apples, farm animals, a corn maze and lots of jams and jellies. But it’s the apple cider doughnuts that draw people like the moth to the proverbial flame.

A 40-mile round trip for a doughnut? Make that a dozen. Opening day for doughnuts is July 20, by the way.